District News Roundup

Van Wyck Junior High School in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., will remain
closed indefinitely while efforts are made to determine the cause of an
outbreak of illness among students and teachers.

The school's 1,660 students will begin attending split sessions this
week at two other schools in the Wappingers Falls School District while
the state department of health coordinates efforts of district, county,
and national health officials to examine the school.

Students and teachers at the school have suffered burning
sensations, irritated eyes, a metallic taste in the mouth, low-grade
headaches, and nausea, according to Linda Nieman, public-information
officer for the school district.

About 700 parents met in two public hearings late last month to urge
the school board to close the school. The parents believe that new
polyurethane foam insulation pumped into the walls of the building last
January through April may be responsible for the illness, according to
Ms. Nieman.

She added that only a few days after the school was closed, students
and teachers at Roy C. Ketcham High School and John Jay High School,
also in the Wappingers Falls School District, began complaining of
similar symptoms.

Those high schools had the same foam insulation installed late last
spring, according to Ms. Nieman.

U.S. District Court Judge Eugene H. Nickerson ruled last month that New
York City education officials have failed to provide handicapped
students with the special-education programs he ordered in 1979.

In ordering a magistrate to make proposals for the district to
comply with the order, Judge Nickerson said in a 37-page ruling that
the district's failure thus far was "manifest and extensive."

Richard F. Halverson, the acting schools chancellor, said he was
surprised at the judge's "strong language." Mr. Halverson said that,
since the order three years ago, "all but a handful" of the system's
handicapped students have been placed in special-education
programs.

In the ruling, the judge ordered the district to meet state
regulations for evaluating handicapped students or seemingly
handicapped students within 30 days of written notification that the
students might need special education.

Placement in the program is to occur within 30 days of the
evaluation under the order.

Those procedures have taken place in New York schools after a
"preliminary evaluation" for each case, a spokesman for the acting
chancellor said. "It's a matter of when you start the clock," the
spokesman said. "We started it after the preliminary evaluation."

A committee established to study the salary structure in the Arlington,
Va., school district has proposed that the district abandon its
automatic pay raises in favor of merit pay.

But Evelyn Reid Syphax, chairman of the school board, said that the
proposal, which she opposes, will not be on the board's agenda "in the
near future." And both the Arlington Education Association and the
American Association of State, County, and Municipal Employees
immediately rejected the idea.

The panel, appointed by the board, said it would take two or three
years to develop evaluation procedures for a merit-pay plan involving
the system's 4,000 employees.

Ms. Syphax said any merit-pay system for teachers would "create a
competitive atmosphere that [would have] a negative impact on
teaching.'' She said the plan would encourage teachers to avoid
cooperating with each other.

All school employees may now receive raises through cost-of-living
adjustments, longevity payments, transfers, annual step increases, and
some minor merit-pay provisions.

The Philadelphia school system has agreed to collaborate with a private
social-research group in the development of a "job-search" curriculum
that will eventually be implemented in 30 high schools in the
district.

The project is being supported by a $2-million grant from the Pew
Memorial Trust, a Philadelphia-based foundation. The program will be
administered by the Work in America Institute, located in Scarsdale,
N.Y.

The course will be aimed at help-ing high-school students to develop
employment and job-readiness skills, according to Albert I. Glassman,
executive director of the district's career-education programs. "We
will be adapting successful job-search techniques taught to various
adult groups throughout the country," he said.

The course will be offered as an elective, Mr. Glassman said, to
either 11th- or 12th-grade students. He added that there are plans to
establish a "training institute" once the curriculum is refined. It
will be used to help other school systems across the country to
implement similar efforts.

The Prince Georges County, Md., school board has been ordered by a
circuit-court judge to provide home instruction for an 8th-grade
student who was expelled from school under a new discipline policy
approved by the board.

Judge Vincent Femia issued the preliminary injunction last month
pending the outcome of a hearing on the constitutionality of the new
discipline rules.

Under the board's new policy, students are automatically expelled if
caught with a weapon on school grounds. The court challenge to the
school board's policy was initiated following the expulsion of Derrick
Lee Stevens in January after he drew a penknife during a fight with
another student.

Until the legality of the policy is decided, Mr. Stevens will
receive 6 hours of home instruction each week from school-system
teachers.

Since enacting the new policy against drugs and weapons this year,
officials said, they have expelled more than 100 students, compared
with only one expulsion last year.

The policy has been criticized by parents, who claim it ignores the
circumstances of an infraction and violates students' right to a fair
hearing.

The Omaha, Neb., school board is considering a three-year, $800,000
program to expand the use of microcomputers in the classroom.

Officials in the district of 42,100 students say they are will buy
only Apple computers because that brand is compatible with more
commercial software programs than others.

If the board approves the plan developed by Fred E. Anderson,
coordinator of media for the district, each elementary school would
eventually have three computers, each junior high would have 10, and
each high school would have 13.

Knowledge of the keyboard and simple commands are now stressed in
the elementary schools, Mr. Anderson said. Mathematics and science are
the main computer-based subjects in junior high, and programming is
stressed in high school.

Vermont students with an interest in either science or the arts will
have a chance to apply for two newly created "Governor's Institutes" in
these fields.

All students in grades 7-12 may apply to participate in both
institutes, which will be held for the first time this summer.

Participants in the arts program will be chosen by the
superintendents of the state's 59 districts. Four students--two from
grades 7-9 and two from grades 10-12--will be chosen from each of the
districts. Science-institute participants will be chosen from the pool
of applicants by a committee of scientists, educators, and parents.

The arts program, which will be held on the campus of Lyndon State
College, will use professional artists as faculty members. Students
will choose a major and a minor in music, drama, dance, writing, or the
visual arts, according to the state education department.

The 35 students chosen to participate in the science program will
spend one week working with scientists employed by Chettenden County
industries and agencies. The students will hear presentations by
scientists, visit local businesses and industries, and spend each
afternoon working with a scientist.

The Vermont Department of Education, the Vermont Council on the
Arts, and the Vermont State College System are co-sponsoring the arts
institute. The state education department will sponsor the science
institute.

A majority of Utah residents believe that too little emphasis is placed
on the teaching of moral values in the state's schools, according to a
recent survey conducted for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Fifty-six percent of men and 55 percent of women among 800 people
polled said moral instruction is being ignored by the education
system.

Six of 10 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
[Mormons] expressed concern over the lack of moral-values teaching,
compared to four of 10 among members of other churches.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled last month that a
lower-court judge committed procedural errors when he ordered that a
severely retarded student be withdrawn from a Cincinnati public school
and placed in a county-operated school for handicapped children.

The case, Mary Ann Roncker v. Franklin B. Walter, was filed in 1980
by the mother of Neil Roncker on the grounds that her son's placement
in the school for severely retarded children would not provide an
"appropriate" educational placement. Ms. Roncker argued that her son
had benefited from the exposure he had to nonhandicapped students,
according to Willis Hollings, Cincinnati's assistant superintendent for
student services.

The appellate court remanded the case to U.S. District Judge Carl B.
Rubin for a hearing on a request that the lawsuit be allowed to
represent all handicapped students in the state. The district court had
refused to grant such a hearing. The appellate court also ruled that
Judge Rubin relied too heavily on testimony of school officials in
reaching his decision.

"The parents have not challenged the evaluation of the child; that
is not the issue," Mr. Hollings said. "The issue is mainstreaming and
whether he would benefit from contact with nonhandicapped children,"
and that, he said, is an educational determination.

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.